Positional Power Plays between the USA, China and Russia: The Case of Iran and Venezuela
No. 59, May-Jun. 2026 In recent decades, particularly in the aftermath of the Second World War, Western Europe has sought to withdraw from the logic of realist geopolitics, still bearing the scars of the many wars that have shaped European history, seeking peace through interdependence, integration and intergovernmental leadership. Although most EU member states are NATO members with the exception of Malta, Cyprus, Austria and Ireland, and armed forces from Western European states have participated in conflicts abroad (e. g. Iraq, Afghanistan), the memory of war and the brutality of realism-driven politics is largely a relic best locked away, an ever-present ghost the EU guards against, confined to the borders of faraway lands – other continents, other countries outside the EU’s borders – that is, until Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine forced Western Europe to acknowledge the reality of war as an ever-present possibility right near its doorstep. The United States, in turn, underwent several shifts, from its ideological and geopolitical Cold War to a unipolar world order that eventually turned multipolar, seeking to maintain its international presence in a world where its dominance following the crash of the USSR began to face the emergence of new poles of power. The United States’ military (through NATO) and diplomatic intervention in the Yugoslav Wars, most notably in Serbia and Kosovo, mirrored its concern for global security in an increasingly globalized environment, a mindset which was further cemented in the US National Security Strategy of 2000. The 9/11 attacks and the ensuing war on terror redefined the US security strategy, further amplifying its focus on global security. In hindsight, the absence of an unclassified national security strategy in 2003 makes sense given the US-led invasion of Iraq. The United States’ approach has always been marked by a need to maintain its competitiveness while also focusing on cooperation with its allies with a focus on global peace. Yet the most recent document the White House Administration published in November 2025 marks a shift in tone as per its own admission. The United States’ National Security Strategy, is unapologetic in its realist approach, its realpolitik tone evident even as it declares itself “realistic without being realist”. More
